SCE 31 - Ishtar Rising 2 (c) by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek [Star Trek]
Language: deu
Format: epub
Tags: \Star Trek
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2011-01-02T07:59:50.435000+00:00

Chapter

5

“There’s so much pressure. So much pressure. Kwolek, da Vinci, please help….”

“Hang in there, Soloman,” said Captain Gold, leaning forward in his command chair. I shouldn’t have let them replace the whole seat after Galvan VI. I only use the edge of the damn thing anyway.

Gold watched the viewer like a raptor stalking its prey. The darkened limb of the planet gave way to the bright, crescent-shaped terminator. The ochre-and-black swirls of the uppermost cloudtops rose to greet the da Vinci’s prow. The ship shuddered as she entered a region of increasing atmospheric turbulence.

Gold turned his chair toward the aft section of the bridge, where Lieutenant Anthony Shabalala busied himself at the tactical station. “What’s our ETA, Shabalala?”

“We should be within visual range of the Kwolek any second.”

“There!” Lieutenant Wong cried out. Gold spun his chair forward in time to see his conn officer pointing at the viewer. Near dead center, the acid-scoured hull of the shuttlecraft was now intermittently visible through the endless churn of the harsh Venusian clouds.

“Her hull is buckling and they’re losing power,” Shabalala reported. “Their shield generator can no longer support the collapsing force-field nodes. But at least all the life signatures aboard the shuttle are holding strong.”

“Good. Wong, bring us to within five klicks of the Kwolek and hold our position there.”

“Aye, sir,” said Wong as he executed the order.

“Shabalala, inform Gomez that the cavalry has arrived.”

Shabalala scowled. “I’m having trouble raising them, Captain. Their comm system may have suffered some damage. Wait a minute, I’m getting something…. Dr. Saadya is hailing us from the orbital station.”

“On screen.”

The shuttlecraft’s intermittent image was abruptly replaced by the static-distorted visage of Pascal Saadya. The unsmiling planetologist seemed to have aged at least a decade during the past hour or so. Watching your life’s work circling the drain can do that to a man, Gold thought, feeling an intense surge of sympathy for his old friend.

Saadya wasted no time on pleasantries. “David, the force-field network is fluctuating so severely now that we’re having trouble maintaining contact with the ground stations. And we can no longer raise your shuttlecraft.”

Gold put on what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Pas. Some of my best engineers are aboard the Kwolek, and I’m sure they’re still coordinating with Soloman and your ground teams to work the problem.”

“Captain, I believe I can establish a transporter lock at this range,” Shabalala said. “I recommend we beam the Kwolek’s crew to safety now.”

“No!” Saadya shouted, his voice nearly breaking. “Don’t you see? They’re working in real time with an extremely fluid and volatile data situation. You’ll drop the entire Venusian sky right on top of the ground stations if you interrupt what they’re doing!”

But I can’t just let this planet eat my shuttle crew either, Gold thought, feeling miserable. He was grimly aware that neither Soloman nor anyone else on the surface could be beamed up unless and until the force-field network—along with the bulk of the atmosphere it had raised but not yet consigned to space—was brought down safely.

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